Reviews written by registered user
JustCuriosity

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146 reviews in total

Hawking was well-received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film is a biopic about Stephen Hawking the celebrity physicist who has become an emblem of science, a medical miracle, and a hero to everyone struggling with a disability. Hawking has survived for fifty years with ALS when he was expected to die within a few years. Hawking has become an icon in popular culture both because of, and in spite of, his severe disability. In a sense, he has demonstrated the power of the mind can triumph despite the limitations of the physical body. His artificial computerized voice has become symbolic of his triumphs over his disability. Hawking captures this eloquently. The film mentions his scientific discoveries, but focuses on his remarkable life story and presents it in an accessible way to the general public. Stephen Hawking is one of the few celebrities who truly deserves the great acclaim that he receives in popular culture. Fittingly, Stephen Hawking narrates his story in his own famous electronic voice. The film is a moving tribute to a man who has made great scientific discoveries, helped to popularize scientific ideas to the general public, and brought hope to millions through his persistence and refusal to surrender to his disease.

At Any Price was well-received in its regional premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Writer/Director Ramin Bahrani continues to show his great versatility as a young filmmaker. Here he moves from the urban environments of his earlier work to rural Iowa. The opening credits suggest that this film will be a romantic tribute to the fading world of the rural family farm. But At Any Price is really about how rural America has become just as ruthless capitalist and competitive as the rest of American life. The film is about the corruption of the American Dream and how the family farm is becoming increasingly ruthless competitive system. The family in this case is the seemingly average Whipple family headed by Henry Whipple who wants to pass his business on to his son Dean Whipple. Dean wants to escape the family farm for the far more exciting world of stock car racing. Dean seems to hate his father, but seems unable to escape the reality of being his father's son. Their father-son relationship drives the entire film. The two leads, Denis Quaid as Henry and Zac Efron as his son, are definitely playing against type as they are both known for far lighter fare. Both really manage to display their acting acumen in what turns out to be a far darker view of the often romanticized American family farm. This is a world of genetically-modified seeds and ruthless competition not church socials. At Any Price is a film about the cost of family and the high cost of the family farm. The farm appears to be just another exemplar of the troubling nature of American capitalism. While the film may prove to be too dark for the ordinary audience of these actors, it is very powerful film about dysfunctional family life and economic life in modern America that should be widely viewed. Highly recommended for those interested in serious film drama.

Pussy Riot seemed to be well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. While many people had seen news reports about the arrest and trial of these three young women who are part of Pussy Riot – described as a feminist punk-rock collective – this documentary provides much more detail on these events. The film is informative as it examines how they were tried essentially a hate crime for performing a highly offensive song at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21, 2012. The trial was somewhat similar to a trial for blasphemy. The film was interesting and informative, but not terribly creative as a documentary film. Much of the film was simply edited tapes of the trial coverage and other secondary news coverage. There was some background material on the young women and interviews with their parents to provide some context for the events. I would say that the events themselves were more inherently interesting than the filmmakers' treatment of them. Still, since the film has been picked up by HBO it appears that many more Americans will get a chance to learn about this Moscow Show Trial and the tragic deterioration of Russian democracy under Vladimir Putin that this trial serves to demonstrate. Certainly, these brave young women deserve our sincere praise and respect for their efforts to promote freedom in Russia.

Medora was a very warmly received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. On the surface the film is an inverse version of Hoosiers; it is the story of a small town Indiana basketball that hasn't won a basketball game in a very long time. But when one looks below the surface, Medora is about a small Indiana town where the factories have closed and most residents are struggling with poverty and all of the social maladies that it produces – like alcoholism, drug abuse and dysfunctional families. The Medora High School's losing basketball team becomes an emblem for all of the Medora's struggles and really for the struggles of thousands of small towns like Medora across the country (although especially in the Midwest). The major reason that the team struggles is that the school is so small that it lacks a student body large enough to compete with other consolidated schools with 10x the student body.

Medora is not a sports film in the traditional sense that it has very little to do with how the team is coached or what defense they should use. The film digs much deeper as the filmmakers follow the students and get inside their home lives and see the struggles of their families with alcoholism, poverty, and absentee parents. The young men are also reaching manhood and trying to figure out what they want to do with their own lives. Medora offers a touching picture of the struggles of rural America. Hopefully, this beautifully filmed documentary will be picked up for broadcast by PBS so that it can gain the much wider audience that it richly deserves.

And does Medora finally win a basketball game? Well, you'll have to watch the film to find out.

Our Nixon seemed to be well-received in its North American premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. This film is a compilation of footage of the Nixon years composed of archival footage from the era, interviews with participants, contemporary audio recordings of public events, audio of the Nixon White House tapes, and most peculiarly never before Super 8 home videos taken by Nixon aides H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin. The film, while clearly critical of Nixon, seems to be attempting to humanize Nixon and his aides by providing an up close and personal view of him and those closest to him. But what emerges isn't particularly informative. The film seems to retell many familiar events: the winding down of the Vietnam War, the release of the Pentagon Papers, Nixon's Visit to China, and the Watergate Scandal (among others) without providing much that is historically new or different from many previous re-tellings of these events. The home videos provide a slightly different shading of events, but nothing that is particularly startling or new. The Nixon White House tapes have been in the public domain for many years so that we've already heard much about Nixon's paranoia and bigotry. The film is entertaining, but the overall point seems to be that Nixon was a flawed human being. I think we knew that already.

Unreal Dreams was extremely well-received in its World Premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Premiering the film at SXSW was particularly appropriate since the events unfolded just north of Austin in Williamson County. The local showings were also enhanced by the presence of Michael Morton himself. His story unfolds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale of the innocent man accused of a crime he didn't commit. I kept wondering if Morton had seen the film Shawshank Redemption since he seemed to be human incarnation of the fictional Andy Dufresne. The miscarriage of justice carried out by the police and prosecutors in Williamson County is simply appalling. While his story is already well- known, this account told in the Morton own voice (along with the voices of many of those who worked for years to free him) provides a very personal account of what Morton endured. The film is remarkably professional, well-edited, and absolutely gripping – even though almost everybody in room already knew what happened.

This film has a relatively happy ending in that justice is ultimately done; in contrast to the even more tragic film, Incendiary: The Willingham Case (which premiered at SXSW in 2011) and tells the story of how Texas actually executed an innocent man under very similar circumstances. In both cases, junk science and dreadful work by police and prosecutors lead to a false conviction. Perhaps, the most remarkable element about the film is Morton's own lack of anger and vengefulness – even towards those who railroaded him. He seems to be a man at peace which seems almost unimaginable since anger and bitterness seem like entirely appropriate reactions. I can't recommend this film more and believe that it will be particularly useful for a variety of educational uses ranging from High Schools to Law Schools. This is an important story and I am really pleased that this film has honored its subject by telling his story in such a respectful and fair manner.

The Network was well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film offers a slim ray of light into the ugly mess that the United States is leaving behind in Afghanistan. Amidst all of the chaos or war, the drug trade, and oppression. The Network offers the story of a brave group of Afghans and expatriates who are trying to begin a process of building a new Afghanistan by creating the country's first free media. In the days after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, they began with radio and eventually expanded to develop Afghanistan's largest TV Network – NOLA TV. In a country with a very high rate of illiteracy, television can be a particularly powerful social force. The film offers a behind-the- scenes look at the difficulty of training a new generation of professionals to produce news and entertaining programming. The film makes clear that NOLA TV has become a portal for bringing positive social attitudes and modern ideas to a country that has been torn apart by violence and fundamentalism for decades.

While the film does point to many flaws in Afghan society, it never seems to be self-critical about NOLA's own work. The vast majority of the interviews are with NOLA's own staff with only very few voices from the outside looking in. The film feels like one where director Eva Orner has become too close to her subject. For example, they admit that they are producing cop shows that encourage Afghanis to respect and obey the police force. But that force is widely known to be highly corrupt. Does such a message truly benefit Afghanistan? The Network certainly provides a useful lens to expose Westerners to some of the problems of modern day Afghanistan and offers a somewhat positive angle on an otherwise bleak landscape where so much of the news seems negative. Still a more self-critical examination might have strengthened the portrait.

William and the Windmill presents the story of how William Kamkwamba who was born in a poor village in Africa and used an old textbook to build a windmill to produce electricity for his village. The film was well- received during its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival where it won the grand jury prize for a Documentary. The film takes us on William's remarkable journey from his small village in Malawi to major cities around the world where he sees a world he could have only dreamed of before. The cultural and economic distance that he able to travel is palpable – especially when he returns to visit his family, friends and neighbors. The windmill and the assistance of several generous sponsors – particularly his mentor Tom Rielly - allow him to gain access to a modern education. William is able to attend a boarding school in South Africa and then matriculate to Dartmouth University. He also writes a book about his experiences and goes on tour. The film allows us to witness his remarkable journey and see how is able to grow and adapt to his new environment. He seems to adapt reasonably well to the accouterments and technologies of the developed world. He is also able to help his village by building them a new modern school. The film is basically a feel-good story of William's journey and his success. The story is certainly well-told and filmed. There is little argument that William's journey is a positive one for him that provides him with new undreamed of opportunities that are beneficial to both him and his village. At the same there an oddly troubling colonial undercurrent that seems embedded in William's narrative. While his success begins with his own genius, his story seems to suggest that the only opportunity for economic development for poor underdeveloped African countries is if the White man comes in and nurtures that genius and provides opportunities. This simply raises the question of what happens to all of the other villages without a William Kamkwamba or a Tom Rielly. William's story is a compelling and provocative individual narrative, but a troubling reminder of the difficult relationship between the developed world and the underdeveloped world. His journey seems like a unique experience rather than one that is easily replicable on a grand scale.

These Birds Walk was very well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Some members of the audience were actually crying at the end of the film. This loving filmed documentary follows young boys – most of whom are runaways – at a boy's home in Karachi, Pakistan. The directors did a beautiful job of creating an emotional film that shows Americans what this sort of poverty is really like. The absence of any Pakistani institutions to take responsibility for these boys' welfare is striking to those watching this film through Western eyes. The directors manage to capture some very intimate scenes of the boys that present them in very human ways much like young boys anywhere. It also shows the great piety that they have learned at an early age. The one criticism that can be made of the film is that the cinema verite style provides the audience with little context so that with no narration certain details may be misunderstood. Some context on the nature of poverty, social structure, religion, and government would help those who know little about Pakistan gain a better understanding of what they are seeing. Otherwise, These Birds Walk offers us a powerful window into a faraway and often poorly understood part of the world.

Fall and Winter had its world premiere at Austin's SXSW film festival. The film is a very well-intentioned and beautiful photographed and edited film about the impending environmental disaster that is predicted by a small cliché of environmentalists. They seem to believe that only are we going to experience severe repercussions of global climate change, but that we are going to run out water and soil leading to massive environmental dislocations and ecological collapse within a few years. This puts them into the category of environmentalists who seem to be predicting that the end of the world is near. They seem to believe that we are doomed by our own technological advancement and that the problem started somewhere around the beginning of mechanized agriculture. The film seems to be overly alarmist even by the standards of the most of the environmental movement.

In response to this massive environmental crisis they seem to only be able to offer very small scale solutions in local sustainable development projects that seem nowhere close to addressing the scale of the problem that they lay out. The solutions seem to be impractical and anarchistic efforts to rely on the wisdom of Hopi Indians and environmental gurus to get our civilization back in tune with the natural biorhythms of Mother Earth. If the problem is as dire as they say than the solutions cannot be as naive as they suggest. They need to instead begin to organize and challenge the existing political institutions instead of dismissing them as hopeless corrupted as they seem to be inclined to do. Fall and Winter is beautiful filmed, frustrating depressing, deeply idealistic and well-intentioned, but also unfortunately hopeless naive.

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